Multiple cell populations in colorectal carcinomas: analysis by 3-colour fluorescence in situ hybridization.

A three-colour FISH approach using centromere-specific DNA probes was used to analyse the number of chromosomes 7, 17 and 18 found within individual tumour cells and the results were correlated with total DNA ploidy determined by image analysis. FISH analysis showed a high level of heterogeneity in the majority of tumour samples with only 7 out of 44 samples having a single chromosome profile occurring in greater than 40% of the cells. Analysis of the modal chromosome number showed that a diploid 2/2/2 profile for chromosome 7, 17 and 18 respectively occurred most commonly. The DNA ploidy index for biopsies with a 2/2/2 profile varied between 0.93-2.06. No gain of chromosome was observed in the adenoma samples or Dukes A tumours but a loss of chromosome 18 was seen in 50% of these early carcinomas. A modal chromosome profile of 4/2/2 was commonly found in Dukes B and C tumours suggesting that endoreduplication with the relative loss of chromosome 17 and 18 is common in advanced cancers. The DNA ploidy index for the more advanced tumours was also variable but significantly higher than that found in the early tumours and non-tumour controls. In conclusion, this work shows that tumours are highly heterogeneous and that the majority of tumours consist of a large number of cell sub-populations with respect to the expression of chromosomes 7, 17 and 18.